Linux Gamble

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Well, it is the weekend. Previously, I said I was going to get some Cat5 (or Cat6) cable and hard wire myself into the router to see if I could get 64 bit openSUSE or Ubuntu working. I have discovered that 5m of Cat5 costs £24.99 from PCWorld and that is a lot more than I intend to pay on the off chance it allows me to get Linux up and running, on the grounds the Belkin works fine in Windows.

However, there is some remaining perseverance.  Tonight I have started the incantations, I have sacrificed a square pane of glass to the LinuxGod (a window… get it? Oh I give up) and unwrapped two penguin (bars) to inspect their entrails. Hopefully this will enable me to get a working Linux system over the course of the weekend.

I suspect, if I am honest and borderline serious, I am going to resort to installing 32bit openSUSE or Ubuntu, as they have worked with this device in the past. If this still fails, I will travel to Antarctica and kill every single black and white, flightless bird I come across. In a bizarre fit of over confidence, I also have a 40gb partition put aside for Solaris. I may be online again before 2008…

6 thoughts on “Linux Gamble”

  2. I wish. Even PCWorld is a 40 minute drive away. I pay the price for living a few miles further away than nowhere.

    I wouldn’t even know where to guess at the nearest Maplin. Bristol might be it, but that is about 60 mins away. Southampton is a bit less but Saturday traffic changes that. Same with Basingstoke.

    I have toyed with the idea of getting it online, but I am impatient 🙂 Hopefully the LinuxVoodoo will work.

  4. You’re allowing a BELKIN router near your computer???? Are you aware that they produced and sold a router which redirected packets to their own website in order to subject users to advertising? There is no way on earth I would let a Belkin device touch my computer.

    Read this:

    http://www.plethora.net/~seebs/ops/ibm/cranky35.html

    Or look at Belkin’s pathetic half-apology, in which they claim they “unintentionally overlooked” the consequences of stealing packets:

    http://seclists.org/politech/2003/Nov/0045.html

    A company that violates the basic contract implicit in a networking product to promote itself is one that absolutely can’t be trusted.

  5. I remember reading about the the issues over Belkin routers and I am aware that the only way to address corporate misdeeds in this manner is to hit them in the profits. However, in a similar manner as an individual I have to be aware of the cost effectiveness of each product I buy, so as long as the Belkin USB dongle is the cheapest I can get my hands on, I will still buy it.

    I am not advocating others to buy Belkin products and I do not use a Belkin router (there are others, cheaper).

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